PESHAWAR (The Thursday Times) — The Pakistan Army on Friday destroyed several Afghan Taliban posts and military installations across the border from South Waziristan and Parachinar in retaliatory strikes, security sources said, forcing Taliban regime personnel to abandon their positions.
The strikes were launched in response to unprovoked firing by Kabul regime personnel on Angoor Adda on October 27, the sources said. There were reports of multiple casualties among Afghan Taliban personnel, who fled their posts after the Pakistani response.
State broadcaster Radio Pakistan confirmed the operation, saying the army had given “a befitting reply” to the unprovoked firing and, “using heavy weaponry”, forced Afghan Taliban personnel to abandon their posts and flee. “Security forces remain committed to the defence of the country and the protection of its people and there will be no compromise on national security,” it said.
Security forces had already destroyed multiple Afghan Taliban checkposts on Wednesday after a mortar shell fired from across the border struck the Angoor Adda bazaar and nearby homes in Lower South Waziristan, martyring one civilian and injuring five members of the same family. Islamabad later dismissed Kabul’s version of events as fabricated.
The Angoor Adda sector has seen repeated cross-border violence. In late April, mortar shelling from Afghanistan wounded civilians and damaged homes in South Waziristan, prompting Pakistani forces to target Taliban positions, and hostilities flared again in February, when Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq.
Islamabad has repeatedly demanded that the Taliban regime stop terrorist groups, including the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, from using Afghan soil to launch attacks inside Pakistan.
